If the Lord Wills

Education for Exultation: Humbly Under God

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to
such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business
and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be
like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while
and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord
wills, we will live and also do this or that." 16 But as it is, you
boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Education for Exultation - Beginning and Ending with God

This is the tenth and final message in the series on Education
for Exultation. We began January 30 with God: "I Am the LORD, and
Besides Me There Is No Savior" Education for Exultation - in God."
And today we end with God, as we focus on James 4:13-16. The aim
today on this Pledge Sunday is to put all our pledging and all our
planning in a humble place under the sovereignty of God over all
things.

Let's walk through this text together, see the picture of God
that is here, and how James says it should affect us. Then let's
apply it to the financial planning and pledging we are about to
do.

Who Is James Addressing?

James 4:13, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will
go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in
business and make a profit.'" James is reprimanding some folks here
- perhaps businessmen or merchants - but it is stated very broadly
so as to include virtually anyone. Anyone who does what? Five
things:

First, they plan to set out on a trip today or tomorrow: "Today
or tomorrow we will go . . ."

Second, they plan to arrive at a destination: "Today or tomorrow
we will go to such and such a city."

Third, they plan to spend a certain amount of time there: "Today
or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year
there."

Fourth, they plan to engage in business and carry through a plan
of action while they are in that city: "Today or tomorrow we will
go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, and engage in
business."

Fifth, they plan for the business to have certain results:
"Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a
year there, and engage in business, and make a profit."

What's the problem here? Is this wrong? To plan and intend to go
places and do things? No, not per se. In verse 15 he is going to
say it is legitimate to plan to do this or that. What's wrong then,
if it's not planning?

What's wrong is that the plan that is made in verse 13 is made
in the mind and spoken with the mouth ("Come now you who say . .
.") without taking a true view of life and God into account. Verse
14 talks about the true view of life that is not being taken into
account, and verse 15 talks about the true view of God that is not
being taken into account when they plan their business venture.

In verse 14, James says to those who are planning this business
venture: "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then
vanishes away." In other words, in all your planning and in all
your talk about your planning ("Come now you who say . . ." verse
13) you are not taking this view of life into account.

My Life Is a Vapor. So What?

I can imagine some American pragmatist saying, "What practical
difference would it make in my business planning whether I believe
my life is a vapor? Do I stop planning, because my life may be
short or uncertain?" I think James would say, "No, you don't stop
planning. You don't drop out of society. You don't become a hermit,
waiting for your little vapor of life to disappear."

So what is the point? The point is that for James, and for God,
it matters whether a true view of life informs and shapes the way
you think and how you speak about your plans. Your mindset matters.
How you talk about your plans matters. Ponder this. Believing that
your life is a vapor may make no practical, bottom-line difference
in whether you plan to do business in a place for one month or one
year or ten years. But, in James' mind - and he speaks for God - it
makes a difference how you think about it and talk about it. "Come
now you who say . . ."

Why? Why does that matter? Because God created us not just to do
things and go places with our bodies, but to have certain attitudes
and convictions and verbal descriptions that reflect the truth - a
true view of life and God. God means for the truth about himself
and about life to be known and felt and spoken as part of our
reason for being. You weren't just created to go to Denver and do
business; you were made to go to Denver with thoughts and attitudes
and words that reflect a right view of life and God.

So he says in verse 14, in all your planning, keep in your mind
and give expression with your lips to this truth: "You are a vapor
that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." That is,
keep in mind that you have no firm substance on this earth. You are
as fragile as mist and vapor. Keep in mind that you have no
durability on this earth, for you appear "for a little while" -
just a little while. Your time is short. And keep in mind that you
will disappear. You will be gone, and life will go on without you.
It matters, he says, that you keep this view of life in mind.

Then verse 15 tells us the true view of God that we should have
in our minds and in our mouths as we plot our future - as we write
our pledges and make our plans. Verse 13 began, "Come now, you who
say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and
spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'" Now
he tells us what's wrong with that way of talking. He says in verse
15, "Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live
and also do this or that."

In other words, it not only matters that you have a right view
of life when you make your plans - you are like a vapor - but it
also matters that you have a right view of God as you make your
plans. And that you give expression of this true view of God: "You
ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or
that.'"

So what is the right view of God that he teaches us to have in
verse 15? He tells us two very important things about God. One is
contained in the words: "If the Lord wills, we will live." And the
other is contained in the words, "If the Lord wills, we will . . .
do this or that." How would you state the truth about God contained
in each of those two sentences?

If the Lord Wills, We Will Live

First, when he says, "If the Lord wills, we will live," he
teaches us that the duration of our lives is in the hands of God.
Or: God governs how long we will live. Or: God is ultimately in
control of life and death. We may not know how long our vapor-like
life will linger in the air, but God knows, because God decides how
long we will live: "If the Lord wills we will live." And James is
saying: If this is a true view of life and God, then it should
shape our mindset and shape our way of talking.

In Acts 18:21, Paul left Ephesus and said, "I will return to you
again if God wills." In 1 Corinthians 4:19 he writes, "I will come
to you soon, if the Lord wills." For most of his life he did not
know if the next town might be his burial place. That was in the
hands of God. And so are our lives. God will decide how long we
live and when we die. And James' point is: God means for that truth
- that reality - to shape our mindset and our attitude and our
words. He means for that truth to be known and spoken about. He
means for it to be a part of the substance of our conversation. God
means for a true view of himself to be known and believed and
embraced and cherished and kept in mind and spoken of. "Instead you
ought to say . . ."

If the Lord Wills, We Will Do This or That

Now, there is another truth about God in verse 15: When he says,
"If God wills we will . . . do this or that," he teaches us that
the activities and accomplishments of our lives are in God's hands.
God governs what we accomplish. Not only are our lives in his
hands, our success is in his hands. "Instead, you ought to say, 'If
the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." "If the
Lord wills . . . we will do this or that." And if the Lord does not
will, we will not do this or that. Whether we do this or that on
our business trip is in the hands of God.

So what was wrong with what these people said in verse 13: "Come
now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a
city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a
profit'"? What's wrong with that? What's wrong is that it does not
give expression to a true view of life or God. Specifically, it
does not give expression to the truth that life is a vapor, and it
does not give expression to the truth that God governs the length
of our lives and the achievements of our lives.

Is there a deeper problem here than just the absence of true
words and the presence of bad theology? Yes, there is, and James
describes it in verse 16: "But as it is, you boast in your
arrogance; all such boasting is evil." The root problem is
arrogance or pride, and the expression of that arrogance, he says,
is "boasting." And all they said was, "Today or tomorrow we will go
to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in
business and make a profit." That's all they said.
And James calls
it boasting, and says it's rooted in arrogance.

At this point in my sermon preparation, I stopped and put my
face in my hands and prayed: Oh, Lord, don't let me overstate this
or understate this. Help me to say it as simply and truly and
powerfully and shockingly as it is here: It is arrogant not to
believe with your heart and confess with your lips that ultimately
God governs how long you live and what you accomplish. "If the Lord
wills, we will live and also do this or that."

There are many accusations today of arrogance and pride. If you
say that a view of God is wrong and harmful, you will be accused of
arrogance. If you say that Christians should share Christ with
their Jewish friends in the hope that they would believe on Jesus
and be saved, you will be accused of arrogance. If you say to a
straying church member enmeshed in sin, "Repent and come back," you
may be accused of judgmentalism and arrogance.

These are very serious charges and so I look very carefully to
the Scriptures as well as to my own heart to see what real
arrogance is. And whatever else it is, this morning we must say
this from James 4:13-16: It is arrogant not to believe in the heart
and confess with the lips that how long you live and what you
accomplish are ultimately in the hands of God.

Applications to Our Present Situation on This Pledge
Sunday

1. Therefore, Education for Exultation means educating our
children to have a true view of life as a vapor and a true view of
God as governing how long we live and what we accomplish. Our aim
is that they not be arrogant, but that they exult in the sovereign
love of God, through Jesus Christ, who died for them and rose
again.

These pledges that we are about to make are not mainly about a
building; they are mainly about a vision of God. God is sovereign.
God governs our lives - their length and their achievement. He does
it with a good and wise hand. He does it with a view to exalting
Jesus Christ whom he sent into the world to save sinners like us.
We want to teach this to the next generation and to the
neighborhood and to the nations. To that I pledge my life and my
money.

2. Corporately, as we make our pledges - which are simply
prayerful financial plans, as James says, "to do this or that" -
let us say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."
If the Lord wills, we will be alive to give our pledge. If the Lord
wills, we will have the resources we have pledged to give. If the
Lord wills, my heart will have these purposes of generosity (1
Chronicles 29:18, "O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart
of Your people, and direct their heart to You").

Let us honor the truth of God in the way we think about our
pledges and the way we talk about this ministry of giving.

3. Let us remember how wonderfully secure we are in the
confidence that it is God who finally governs our lives - God and
not chance, God and not our enemies, God and not disease, God and
not the devil. I, for one, am very glad that my life is in the
hands of an all-loving, all-wise, all-powerful Father. I pray that
in the Gethsemane evening of my life I will be able to say with
Jesus, "Not my will but yours be done," and then, "Into your hands
I commit my spirit." Rejoice in this. You are immortal until God's
work for you is done.

4. Finally, since your life and your accomplishments are
ultimately in the hands of God, then he is able, in ways you never
dreamed, to help you fulfill your pledge and provide every need
besides. Philippians 4:19: "My God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." 2 Corinthians
9:8: "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always
having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for
every good deed."

We are going to stand and sing to each other and to the Lord as
we turn in our pledges. The songs we have chosen are meant to be
expressions of joyful humility and gratitude and trust and worship.
The greatest danger facing us is arrogance. The greatest triumph
will be humble, loving, exultation in God who governs our lives and
our achievements for our good and his glory. Amen.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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